Friend got a free pass to the preview of Foolproof. Hadn't done much since Hurricane Juan blew through the city, so I thought "Hey, I know nothing about this movie, but it should be a good way to kill 90 minutes..." I was right...sort of.
This movie wasn't bad...it wasn't really good either, but "Hollow Man" it definately was NOT.
The premise is a little trite, but here it goes. Ryan Reynolds plays Kevin, a cutish little cubicle nebbish who in his spare time, plans, devises and pretends to hack banks, jewelry stores and the like with his two friends - Kristen Booth as the wired and angry Samantha, and Joris Jarsky as the nerdy, unkempt and slimy techie Rob. Let me impress upon you the seriousness of what they do. They stake out places (in the beginning of the movie, it is a jewelers), find out the security systems, layout of the place, habits of night guards, etc. Then, in Rob's garage, they recreate the scenario of breaking in to the last detail. They get mockups of the security systems, measure distances and essentially breaks into the place without actually doing it. They call their little group "Foolproof", and you know this because a) Kevin is an uptight, twitchy stickler for the rules who insists everything be followed to the last detail and b) they repeat the word every five seconds. Honestly, its like going to see "Batman" and having him say "I'm Batman" everytime he meets someone new...we get that the movie is called Foolproof, you don't need to beat us over the head with it.
My main problem in the first five minutes of the movie is that they do not give any screen time explaining how they got layout plans of the building, technical specs and blueprints of the building high security system, technical and chemical knoeledge enough to be able to recreate and then defeat these systems, or any real reason why a bunch of people would do this. They don't seem to be having a lot of fun, especially Kevin, and they don't explain where all this stuff comes from or where they get the money. Rob is an insurance adjuster, so his money isn't exactly rolling in.
That and they say the word "Foolproof" about twenty times...sigh.
Enter Leo Gillette, also known as Leo The Touch...a flawless (maybe foolproof?) theif who has stumbled upon their little group, stole the plans for the jewlers, and used them to perfection to steal the jewels these idiots were only pretending to steal. He then blackmails them into working for him on a new job, since their fingerprints are all over the plans. Leo is played quite admirably by David Suchet (Hercule Poirot in the series, and Geppetto in Roberto Bengini's Pinnochio), and he gets these losers to work on his job, and put their virtual talents to use. He also apparently starts to win over Rob, who is a loser who sees in Leo everything he wants, and Leo kind of takes him under his wing a bit.
I won't give away any of the ending; the actual sequence for the breakins and how they do it is rather well done for such a small Canadian picture, and the chemistry between the actors is, if not electric, at least beleivable. There are a few instances at the big suprise wrap up finish where they explain everything that I had to beat myself on the head saying "Stop thinking! Thinking is bad!", but suffice to say, while it may look good on screen, it is utterly unbeleivable...
The ending is rather satisfying, but in all, the premise and execution is rather lame and unbelievable, and while the actors do a good job with the roles they are given, I care absolutely nothing for any of them. I hope they fail, and Leo has them put in cement shoes.
Do not pay actual money to see this, unless REALLY bored and you have seen every other good movie in the theater (go see another one again, is my reccomendation), and I wouldn't even reccomend it as a renter. Wait until it hits the Movie Network, and watch it then...and only if you have nothing else to do.
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